"THI" 2002 Obituary

THIBAUDEAU o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.globe_and_mail 2002-11-27 published
Town salutes Canadian heroes
60 years later, Dutch community recalls how three airmen died
to save lives
By Roberta
COWANSpecial to The Globe and Mail Wednesday, November
27, 2002 -- Print Edition, Page A1
Amsterdam -- By the hundreds, with wreaths of red orchids and
white roses, they came to pay respects to the Canadians who saved
their town.
Young and old, they came to the Dutch Reform Church in Wilnis
to honour the three men who, in 1943, chose to go down with their
plane rather than risk many more lives in the Dutch community.
They came to pay thanks to the Canadian relatives -- 18 next
of kin -- who also were among the mourners. And after six decades,
they came to help put to rest one of the great mysteries of Canadian
military history.
Just about everyone in Wilnis turned up last night to view three
caskets that were draped in Canadian flags and bore the remains
of three airmen, whose Vickers Wellington bomber was shot down
by a German fighter on May 5, 1943.
Amazingly, the aircraft and the remains of Sergeants Adrien
THIBAUDEAU
and Joseph
WHITE/WHYTE sank in a bog and were discovered just two months
ago by a special search team. Some of the remains of a third
crew member, Warrant Officer Robert
MOULTON, were also found
in the plane.
The men will receive a full military funeral this morning at
Wilnis cemetery, presided over by two Canadian ministers and
a bagpiper, before all eyes in the town turn to a flypast of
Dutch military planes in the "lost man" formation -- three ahead
and one behind.
A military guard, representing all parts of the Canadian Forces,
will lead the procession, followed by Dutch war veterans and
many of the townspeople who remember the night the bomber crashed
in a nearby field rather than in their town.
In the town of 10,000 people, just south of Amsterdam, all schools
will also be closed so that children carrying Canadian flags
can line the route to the cemetery.
"Usque ad finem," a banner in the church reads. "Until the very
end."
For decades, the heroism of the Canadian crew that stayed with
their plane until the very end has been part of Wilnis lore.
Two of the five crew members parachuted out of the plane after
it was attacked during its return from a night raid in which
600 Allied planes raided Dortmund, just across the German border.
Although the two were taken prisoner by German forces and released
at the end of the war, they never knew what happened to the rest
of their crew. The two men, Sergeant Gordon
CARTER and Sergeant
Howard HODDINOTT, died many decades later.
Britain's Royal Air Force made efforts to recover the plane when
the war ended, but failed to do so, and the investigation was
put to rest. The families endured years of not knowing what happened
to their airmen.
Some of Warrant Officer
MOULTON's remains were found and buried
in the local cemetery decades ago. But with no evidence of Sgts.
THIBAUDEAU and
WHITE/WHYTE, they were listed as missing in action until
this year.
"My father went to Holland after the war to try and figure what
the hell happened to my brother," Sgt.
THIBAUDEAU's younger brother
Jean-Claude, now 70, said yesterday. "We were told he was lost
in flight, which means his plane crashed, but nobody knew where."
The renewed bid to find the bomber began several years ago, when,
prompted by a grand_son's history lesson, an older Wilnis man
came forward to say how he had watched the burning bomber crash
into a nearby farmer's field. With the country under Nazi invasion,
the lad snuck out of the family home and ran to find that the
plane had landed in a peat bog and was sinking quickly. The next
morning, only water remained.
A local teacher and others founded a group that fought reluctant
officials and red tape to have the plane excavated, a process
that concluded last September.
"Remarkably, the bomber, its contents and most importantly, the
remains of Sgts.
THIBAUDEAU and
WHITE/WHYTE, were fairly well preserved
in the peat," said Robert DE
JONG, head of the Dutch Royal Army's
excavation effort.
The Canadians planning to attend the service were of mixed emotions
yesterday -- nostalgic for times long past, sad for their lost
relatives and Friends, appreciative of the effort made in Wilnis.
Mr. THIBAUDEAU was moved by the discovery of his brother's remains,
calling it "painful" that it happened after the death of his
parents, who knew Adrien best.
Peggy CARTER, a Winnipeg woman whose navigator husband Sgt.
CARTER
died in 1990, hopes to be given her husband's ruler, which was
found in the wreckage. She and Jan
HODDINOTT, the widow of the
other PoW, were hoping to pay their respects on behalf of their
husbands.
"Although my husband rarely talked about the war or being a PoW,
and he never wanted to come back to Europe after the war ended,
he would have wanted to be here today to pay respect to his Friends,"
Mrs. CARTER said.
"It's so very sad that all this information came out after Gordon
died, because he really believed the plane crashed in the North
Sea," she added.
According to her husband's debriefing report, which he later
filed to Allied forces in Britain, Warrant Officer Moulton told
them to bail out two minutes after the bomber was hit. Sgt.
CARTER
woke up in a field, where a farm family found him and took him
in before handing him over to the Germans.
Mrs. CARTER's son Kevin, 51, said his father never faulted the
family who handed him over since Nazis were killing people for
harbouring Allied airmen.

THIBODEAU o@ca.on.manitoulin.howland.little_current.manitoulin_expositor 2002-03-20 published
Glenna Mae
WRIGHT
In loving memory of Glenna Mae
WRIGHT who passed away at her home on
Saturday, March 16, 2002 at the age of 73 years.
Loved wife of Murchie, cherished mother of Brian and Karen
THIBODEAU
of Smith Falls, Brenda and Craig
CLAYTON of Pefferlaw, Marcia
VARRETTE
of Kingston, Jeffrey
THIBODEAU of Surrey, BC. Predeceased by sons David
(survived by wife
Cathy) and
Danny.Stepmother of Gregory and Mary Lynn
WRIGHT
of Little Current, Terry and Anne
WRIGHT of Little Current, Mitchell and Shelly
WRIGHT
of Bowmanville, Kevin and Kathy
WRIGHT of Las Vegas. Will be missed by grandchildren
Renee, Cory, Shawn, Taylor, Chad, Sara, James, Theresa, Megan,
Courtney, Nicki and Andrew. Step grandchildren Jennifer, Michael,
Kaitlyn, Taylor, Peter, Christopher, Aaron, Hope and Greer. Great
grandmother of Hunter and Kiah. Remembered with love by brothers
Alan GREER/GRIER and Jack
GREER/GRIER.
Predeceased by sister Margaret
WRIGHT
(1975). Visitation was held on Sunday March 17. Funeral Service was
held at 1: 00 p.m. on Monday, March 18 at the Island Funeral Home. Cremation.

THIBODEAU o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2002-12-31 published
PIMM,
MadelineRose ''Pat'' -- With deepest sorrow the family
of Pat announce her passing on December 30, 2002. Beloved wife
of the late Cy. Much loved mother of Peter and his partner Gloria
THIBODEAU of Toronto. Patti and her husband Paul
PRENTICE of
Minden, and Dallie. Loving grandmother of Laura and Robyn
PIMM,
Simon and Brittany
PRENTICE. Dear aunt to Tanya
NEESER and Bill
PIMM.
Friends are invited to visit the family at the Gordon A.
Monk Funeral Home Ltd., 127 Main Street, Minden, Ontario K0M 2K0
(1-888-588-5777) on Thursday, January 2, 2003 from 6: 30 p.m.
until the time of the service at 7: 30 p.m. Reception will follow
in the family centre at the Funeral Home. Spring Interment at
the Minden Cemetery. Memorial donations to the Haliburton Highlands
Health Service Foundation or to the Canadian National Institute
for the Blind would be appreciated by the family.

THIESSEN o@ca.on.york_county.toronto.toronto_star 2002-11-11 published
MOORE,
EthelMary -- Passed away peacefully on November 9, 2002,
at 88 years of age. Loving mother of Kathleen
CLARKE of Kitchener
and Kevin MOORE and his wife
Doreen of Brampton. Dear grandmother
of Stephen
CLARKE
(Jurate) of London, England; Michelle
CLARKE
of Kitchener, Kenneth
MOORE
(Teri) and Richard
MOORE (Melissa)
of Brampton. Will be sadly missed by great-grandchildren Andrew,
Kurtis and Jacob
THIESSEN of Kitchener. Predeceased by her husband
Sydney MOORE and son-in-law Douglas
CLARKE.
Friends may call
at the Turner and Porter ''Peel'' Chapel, 2180 Hurontario Street,
Mississauga (Hwy. 10,North of Queen Elizabeth Way) from 12 o'clock
until time of funeral service in the Chapel at 1 o'clock on Tuesday,
November 12, 2002, Reverend Robert
DALGLEISH officiating. In memory
of Ethel, memorial donations to the Canadian Cancer Society or
floral tributes would be appreciated by the family.